1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method and, more particularly, to an image processing apparatus and method for outputting portions of multiple number of documents, wherein said portions are identified by certain image attributes.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional image processing apparatus that processes an input image and outputs the processed image, even when an image to be processed is a set of a plurality of image regions with different attributes, it is a common practice to output these image regions without changing their layout.
For example, in an image processing apparatus that displays an input document image, one page of input document images is directly displayed on a display, or the respective pages are simply reduced in scale, and a plurality of pages are displayed on the display like thumbnail display.
However, in these prior arts, an output image may often include an image region having an unwanted attribute.
For example, when a document image is displayed in a reduced scale, characters in that document become illegible since they become very small. Hence, the image must be enlarged to a scale that allows the operator to read the document. In this case, the entire document cannot often be displayed on the display. For this reason, the operator has to move the displayed document image in the horizontal or vertical direction to display a desired position of the document.
When the document image includes a photograph, figure, table, or the like, it is inconvenient to display the entire document image, instead of only the text portion of interest of the document image.
Upon outputting from a printer, even when the operator requires text in a given page, if that page includes a photograph, figure, and the like, a long output time is required to print out that page.
The present invention has been made to solve the conventional problems, and has as its object to provide an image processing apparatus and method, which can efficiently output images.
In order to achieve the above object, an image processing method according to the present invention comprises:
a selection instruction step of instructing to select an image and image attribute, and to extract and output an image region with a selected attribute; and
a extraction output step of segmenting an image selected in the selection instruction step into image regions with different attributes, and extracting and outputting an image region with the attribute selected in the selection instruction step from the segmented image regions.
The extraction output step preferably includes:
a step of recognizing a continuous pixel group having a predetermined density in an image as a rectangular region;
a step of identifying an attribute of the rectangular region using a width, height, area, and pixel density of the rectangular region; and
a step of determining the attribute of the rectangular region by computing and comparing local histograms of the rectangular region.
Another image processing method according to the present invention comprises:
an image selection step of selecting an image;
a text extraction instruction step of instructing to extract an image region with a text attribute; and
s text output step of segmenting the image selected in the image selection step into image regions having different attributes, and extracting and outputting an image region with the text attribute from the segmented image regions in accordance with an instruction issued in the text extraction instruction step.
The text output step preferably comprises a text display step of displaying the extracted image region.
The image processing method preferably further comprises:
a displayed text change instruction step of instructing to change the image region displayed in the text display step to another image region with a text attribute; and
a display change step of changing the image region to be displayed in accordance with an instruction issued in the displayed text change instruction step.
The text display step is preferably capable of displaying a plurality of image regions with a text attribute.
The image processing method preferably further comprises:
a selection instruction step of instructing to select an image region that requests to display a pre-segmentation image, which includes that image region, from the image regions selected in the text display step, and to display the pre-segmentation image; and
a pre-segmentation image display step of retrieving and displaying the pre-segmentation image including the selected image region on the basis of the image region selected in the selection instruction step.
The text output step preferably includes:
a step of recognizing a continuous pixel group having a predetermined density in an image as a rectangular region;
a step of identifying an attribute of the rectangular region using a width, height, area, and pixel density of the rectangular region; and
a step of determining the attribute of the rectangular region by computing and comparing local histograms of the rectangular region.
An image processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
image input means for inputting image information;
segmentation means for segmenting an image input by the image input means into image regions having different attributes;
extraction means for extracting an image region having a predetermined attribute from the image regions segmented by the segmentation means; and
output means for outputting an image of the image region extracted by the extraction means.
The output means preferably comprises display means.
The predetermined attribute is preferably a text attribute.
The image input means preferably comprises image scanning means for scanning image information.
The output means can preferably retrieve and output the input image from the extracted image region.
The segmentation means preferably recognizes a rectangle by detecting continuous pixels having a predetermined density, identifies an attribute of the rectangle using a width, height, area, and pixel density of an area defined by the rectangle, and determines the attribute of the region by computing and comparing local histograms of the region.
A computer readable memory according to the present invention stores:
a program module for acquiring an image and image attribute selection instruction, and an extraction output instruction of an image region having a selected attribute; and
a program module for segmenting an image based on the selection instruction acquired by the program into image regions having different attributes, and extracting and outputting an image region having an attribute based on the selection instruction acquired by the program from the segmented image regions.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.